Military to test hypersonic jet that could zip across the U.S. in less than 1 hourBy Ron Recinto | The Lookout – 22 hrs ago

A superfast jet that could fly from L.A. to New York City in less than an hour may be one step closer to reality after a key test this week.

The X-51A WaveRider, an unmanned aircraft that could reach speeds up to Mach 6 will be launched from the wing of a B-52 bomber high above the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The WaveRider is expected to zip up into the atmosphere and fly at hypersonic speeds—3,600 mph—for 300 seconds, before breaking up into the ocean.

If successful, if would be the longest jaunt for the test aircraft. The newspaper noted that the development of WaveRider could lead to progress on a passenger jet that could theoretically travel across the U.S. in 46 minutes.

"Attaining sustained hypersonic flight is like going from propeller-driven aircraft to jet aircraft," Robert A. Mercier, deputy for technology in the high speed systems division at the Air Force Research Laboratory in Ohio told the L.A. Times.

But beyond passenger flights, achieving hypersonic speeds could also lead to the development of the next generation of missiles, space vehicles and military aircraft, the Times points out.

The WaveRider program had an issue in June of 2011 when the test vehicle in a similar test to the one planned for Tuesday failed to reach full power.

The Pentagon said it spent about $2 billion on technology and engineering around hypersonic flight over the last decade, the Times reports. This program is estimated to cost $140 million, according to Globalsecurity.org, a military policy research website.

If you're keeping score, the Concorde, a supersonic airliner, crossed the Atlantic at 1,350 mph.

It would take about 3.5 hours, about twice as fast as current commercial airlines. The Concorde was retired in 2003.

August 14th, 2012, 12:55 pm

WarEr4Christ

QB Coach - Brian Callahan

Joined: October 26th, 2005, 11:48 pmPosts: 3056Location: Elkhart, In.

Re: Military to test hypersonic jet - 3,600 mph

Is it gonna run on electric propulsion? Or better yet wind? Hmmm, doesn't sound too green to me.

_________________Acts 4:13, 1 Cor. 2:1-5, Rom. 12:1-2

August 14th, 2012, 3:40 pm

Pablo

RIP Killer

Joined: August 6th, 2004, 9:21 amPosts: 10064Location: Dallas

Re: Military to test hypersonic jet - 3,600 mph

EPIC FAIL - again... BTW - I like how it is referred to as a Jet in other article and a missle here - lol

Quote:

Pentagon's $140M USD Hypersonic Missile Crashes and Burns

Second major failure mars defense research project

America's dream of shooting missiles at hypersonic speeds around the globe at its enemies have been put on hold after a costly research program endured a second major malfunction.

The ballyhooed X-51A "WaveRider" plummeted unceremoniously into the cold outstretched arms of the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, ending a much hyped test launch.

The third test for the project, went much like the last. The high-tech payload was carried aloft by a B-52 bomber from Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. Over the waters near Pugu State Park the missile was dropped, falling for four seconds before the booster lit.

About 15 seconds into the booster burn, the flight crew noticed something was going wrong -- a fin on the rocket had gone out of control just as the design was creeping up towards the speeds necessary to ignite the scramjet engine. Shortly thereafter control was lost.

Rather than reaching the intended speed of 3,600 miles per hour (Mach 6) and enjoying a healthy flight of 5 minutes, the missile never reach hypersonic mode, instead ending in a familiar death spiral into the ocean surf.

In many ways the latest result marks a regression for the research project, which is estimated by Globalsecurity.org to have sucked up $140M USD taxpayer dollars.

Designed by The Boeing Company (BA), the missile could theoretically strike Moscow, Russia in less than two hours, or alternatively Tehran, Iran in just over two hours. In May 2010 when the missile first launched it worked up to 3,500 before ending its flight at 143 seconds. But that crash-landing was actually according to plan.

A second oceanic crash-landing in June 2011 due to a lapse in airflow was not planned, but it indeed occurred. Now a second failure has been added to this list, silencing optimism that the technology was nearing battle readiness.

Charlie Brink, program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory, bemoaned, "It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the Scramjet engine. All our data showed we had created the right conditions for engine ignition and we were very hopeful to meet our test objectives."

U.S. government officials and members of the media are oft quick to poke fun at other nations' failed missile launches. But the X-51A WaveRider failure reminds that missile development is tricky business -- quite literally rocket science.

Boeing is left with both good news and bad news. On the one hand, it's out of potentially billions of dollars it could make on orders for the WaveRider, for now. On the other hand, it has $140M USD in taxpayer money anyways to keep it warm at night.

EPIC FAIL - again... BTW - I like how it is referred to as a Jet in other article and a missle here - lol

Quote:

Pentagon's $140M USD Hypersonic Missile Crashes and Burns

Second major failure mars defense research project

America's dream of shooting missiles at hypersonic speeds around the globe at its enemies have been put on hold after a costly research program endured a second major malfunction.

The ballyhooed X-51A "WaveRider" plummeted unceremoniously into the cold outstretched arms of the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, ending a much hyped test launch.

The third test for the project, went much like the last. The high-tech payload was carried aloft by a B-52 bomber from Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. Over the waters near Pugu State Park the missile was dropped, falling for four seconds before the booster lit.

About 15 seconds into the booster burn, the flight crew noticed something was going wrong -- a fin on the rocket had gone out of control just as the design was creeping up towards the speeds necessary to ignite the scramjet engine. Shortly thereafter control was lost.

Rather than reaching the intended speed of 3,600 miles per hour (Mach 6) and enjoying a healthy flight of 5 minutes, the missile never reach hypersonic mode, instead ending in a familiar death spiral into the ocean surf.

In many ways the latest result marks a regression for the research project, which is estimated by Globalsecurity.org to have sucked up $140M USD taxpayer dollars.

Designed by The Boeing Company (BA), the missile could theoretically strike Moscow, Russia in less than two hours, or alternatively Tehran, Iran in just over two hours. In May 2010 when the missile first launched it worked up to 3,500 before ending its flight at 143 seconds. But that crash-landing was actually according to plan.

A second oceanic crash-landing in June 2011 due to a lapse in airflow was not planned, but it indeed occurred. Now a second failure has been added to this list, silencing optimism that the technology was nearing battle readiness.

Charlie Brink, program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory, bemoaned, "It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the Scramjet engine. All our data showed we had created the right conditions for engine ignition and we were very hopeful to meet our test objectives."

U.S. government officials and members of the media are oft quick to poke fun at other nations' failed missile launches. But the X-51A WaveRider failure reminds that missile development is tricky business -- quite literally rocket science.

Boeing is left with both good news and bad news. On the one hand, it's out of potentially billions of dollars it could make on orders for the WaveRider, for now. On the other hand, it has $140M USD in taxpayer money anyways to keep it warm at night.

$140M. I wonder how many hungry people that would have fed?

August 16th, 2012, 9:21 am

regularjoe12

Def. Coordinator – Teryl Austin

Joined: March 30th, 2006, 12:48 amPosts: 4216Location: Davison Mi

Re: Military to test hypersonic jet - 3,600 mph

BillySims wrote:

Pablo wrote:

EPIC FAIL - again... BTW - I like how it is referred to as a Jet in other article and a missle here - lol

Quote:

Pentagon's $140M USD Hypersonic Missile Crashes and Burns

Second major failure mars defense research project

America's dream of shooting missiles at hypersonic speeds around the globe at its enemies have been put on hold after a costly research program endured a second major malfunction.

The ballyhooed X-51A "WaveRider" plummeted unceremoniously into the cold outstretched arms of the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, ending a much hyped test launch.

The third test for the project, went much like the last. The high-tech payload was carried aloft by a B-52 bomber from Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. Over the waters near Pugu State Park the missile was dropped, falling for four seconds before the booster lit.

About 15 seconds into the booster burn, the flight crew noticed something was going wrong -- a fin on the rocket had gone out of control just as the design was creeping up towards the speeds necessary to ignite the scramjet engine. Shortly thereafter control was lost.

Rather than reaching the intended speed of 3,600 miles per hour (Mach 6) and enjoying a healthy flight of 5 minutes, the missile never reach hypersonic mode, instead ending in a familiar death spiral into the ocean surf.

In many ways the latest result marks a regression for the research project, which is estimated by Globalsecurity.org to have sucked up $140M USD taxpayer dollars.

Designed by The Boeing Company (BA), the missile could theoretically strike Moscow, Russia in less than two hours, or alternatively Tehran, Iran in just over two hours. In May 2010 when the missile first launched it worked up to 3,500 before ending its flight at 143 seconds. But that crash-landing was actually according to plan.

A second oceanic crash-landing in June 2011 due to a lapse in airflow was not planned, but it indeed occurred. Now a second failure has been added to this list, silencing optimism that the technology was nearing battle readiness.

Charlie Brink, program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory, bemoaned, "It is unfortunate that a problem with this subsystem caused a termination before we could light the Scramjet engine. All our data showed we had created the right conditions for engine ignition and we were very hopeful to meet our test objectives."

U.S. government officials and members of the media are oft quick to poke fun at other nations' failed missile launches. But the X-51A WaveRider failure reminds that missile development is tricky business -- quite literally rocket science.

Boeing is left with both good news and bad news. On the one hand, it's out of potentially billions of dollars it could make on orders for the WaveRider, for now. On the other hand, it has $140M USD in taxpayer money anyways to keep it warm at night.